E!115685. DEvelopment of COnductive rubber compounds based on high quality European rGO

In DECOrGO, project partners Abalonyx (ABX), Graphmatech (GMT) and RDC will develop and scale a novel approach for the synthesis of rGO and use this to establish Aros Graphene® (a novel development that enables perfect dispersion of graphene), to drive the use of graphene nano-additives in commercial applications for conductive rubber compounds. Project Goals: 1. Antistatic/dissipative safety shoe soles: Antistatic shoes dissipate static electricity but are low-level conductive. 2. Seals/ gaskets for EV electric motors/ Batteries: Conductive seals are required to provide a reliable connection between grounded housings and shafts in EV powertrains, to avoid damage to bearings caused through exposure to electricity and electromagnetic radiation. 3. Semiconductive and conductive layers in High and Medium Voltage cables: graphene masterbatch with high electrical properties to achieve lower volume resistivity with huge benefit on process, flexibility, hardness and water resistance

DECOrGO will focus on developing conductive masterbatches for rubber compounds by using reduced graphene oxide (rGO). In DECOrGO, ABX will develop high-quality with high-conductivity grades of rGO (more pristine = better conductivity), GMT will modify this to develop Aros Graphene. Aros Graphene is a hybrid graphene where flakes are better separated than tradition rGO. This separation reduces agglomeration in a compound. This will then be introduced into rubber masterbatches developed by RDC. The goal is to develop conductive rubber compounds that can be used in applications where carbon black is currently deficient in either conductive performance or mechanical properties as a result of using carbon black to achieve conductivity. To achieve this ABX will produce 2 grades of high-quality rGO (high-aspect ratio and high-conductivity). These will initially match the grades that are used by GMT, enabling ABX to replace the existing GMT supplier. GMT will then use these new high-quality rGO supplied by ABX to produce new a new Aros Graphene grade, which will be non-agglomerating, easily dispersible and highly-conductive graphene to enable RDC to then produce new graphene-rubber masterbatches. The targets for masterbatch conductivity will be at least one order of magnitude better; e.g. the volume resistivity for cable semiconductive compound is today is around 10 ohm*m, to be disruptive we must bring down it to 1 ohm*m. ABX: new know-how on optimising rGO for commercial applications ABX & GMT: new co-owned reactor design for rGO scale up RDC: new formulations for graphene-based masterbatches with intimate knowledge of optimal loading levels of graphene to achieve either conductive or dissipative properties without compromise on other mechanical properties such as hardness, viscosity or shear.